New SFX Library Unveils The Strange And Surprising Sounds Of Bridges

German sound designer and recordist Stephan Marche has just released Around Bridges, an interesting new sound library with some very unique soundscapes and ambiences. I’ve spoken with him about his work and his new sfx library:

How did you get started with sound effect library creation?

After 15 years working as video editor and sound engineer specializing in documentary design, I felt there was a lack of compact and easily manageable sound libraries that could quickly give me what I need, without having to browse through hundreds of files.

This need for well-arranged and not-oversized libraries drove me to launch “Detunized” in 2009.
Under this brand I develop and distribute themed sound libraries with a handy size of often less than 1 GB.
My catalog covers a growing range of sampled instruments, sound design tool boxes and field recordings.

With “Around Bridges” I reached release No. 55, and as long as I get inspired enough this list will be expanded monthly.

How did you come up with the idea of recording the sounds of bridges?

Dresden, my home town, is situated at the nice river Elbe and therefore has a lot of bridges. Two of them are of special interest for me: The first one was opened this year – and because of this bridge, Dresden instantly lost its UNESCO authentication as a world cultural heritage, which is really sad.

The other one, and also much more interesting from an architectural point of view, is the one called “Blaues Wunder” (eng: Blue Wonder).

I have to cross this 120-year old bridge every day and I’m still impressed by its slender construction which is held together by thousands of steel rivets.

Inspired by the commotion caused by the first bridge, and attracted by the beauty of the Blue Wonder, it was just a question of time before I decided to have a closer look at their sound capabilities. And, to be honest, without big expectations.

But right after listening to the first test examples I felt a little ashamed that I completely underestimated the sonic potential of a bridge!

I felt a little ashamed that I completely underestimated the sonic potential of a bridge!

What was your approach to Around Bridges?

So my approach was to find out if and how vibrations are transmitted by the steel components of a bridge and how these sounds are perceived when the visual context is missing or has changed.

Firstly, I discovered that even the voices of passing pedestrians are transmitted by a bridge’s handrail. As fascinating as this was, I did not include these files in the library because they are too specific and definitely insist on a concrete dialog scene of a movie, or something related to images of a speaking human.

Recording on the bridge

Then I found out that this “DA-DANG” caused by cars crossing the expansion gaps could be the most versatile sound. It’s a percussive impulse that can be tweaked into many directions and therefore doesn´t need the visual context from its origin.

The same goes for these slowly swelling or sometimes even steady drones with their decent resonances (my favourite sounds of them all). It’s always nice to include a discreet background texture in a musical track, a movie score or a soundscape for theater or dance performances.

To round up this library – and knowing from experience that one often need some according ambiences in documentary editing – I also included some ambiences that are mainly recorded below the bridges. This gives them a certain character in terms of frequency range and stereo image.

What was your recording setup?

For Around Bridges I used at least 2 handmade contact mics that went into a Shure FP33. This is a rock-solid piece of gear which I’ve owned since my TV years.
I love it´s high output because this allowed me to go straight into the consumer level input of an Olympus LS-5 where I had to use just a minimum of gain.

How did people react to your project?

Well, that was one thing that struck me during the days of recording: The fact that nobody seemed care about what this guy was doing there! I mean, just imagine a person crouching down by a handrail in the middle of a bridge, staring into a pocket of dubious content, with black wires coming out that disappear anywhere between the bars of this handrail. Shouldn’t this attract some interest?

Only once a kind lady asked me if I was an employee of the town and what kind of measurements I was doing. She was seriously concerned that this bridge was in such a desolate state :-)

In a remote research lab in the north-east of England, scientists have been secretly carrying out experiments on a number of human test subjects. There is no record of what these experiments entailed or who authorized them, but one thing we do know is that something went horrendously wrong and transformed these once-innocent, everyday people into something else entirely… Something inherently evil.

Herein lies an audio documentation of these wretched beasts as they run amok with only one thing on their minds… To feed and to destroy.

Featuring sounds taken from lo-fi instrumental recordings, harsh noise experiments and granular synthesis explorations, Atmosfear is a gritty soundscape collection geared towards the horror genre. With a distinctly unpolished production style to bring a rough edge to your scenario, these sounds can be used to invoke feelings of suspense, dread, tension, fear and doom into your characters and environments.

What does an industrial scale torture chamber in an abandoned asylum sound like? What about a high-voltage electrical possession? Find the answer to these questions and more with Atmosfear. Enter if you dare.

Swordfighter is a robust package with sharp sounding swords, heaps of variations and all the extras you need to make a fight come alive. Build unique sword swings with various hits, swooshes, schings, different fighter vocals and impacts on various surfaces. All up there are 137 sword sounds, 93 surface impact sounds, 15 knife throwing sounds, 48 swooshes and 180 fighter vocals.

This version includes two sub-folders: one optimised for a film & TV workflow and the other optimised for video games workflow. Plus a few bonus sounds of a charging army.

Get all sorts of ambisonic debris recordings in this release from Spheric Collection – perfect for earthquakes, landslides, explosions and beyond. Debris is the material you will need for a house and gallery collapsing. From very small stone and dust to large rocks, this collection is a good set of mineral sounds – covering everything from impacts, continuous falling debris, rocks poured from various heights, light and heavy falling debris sounds, a number of falling rock sounds, to rocky explosions and blasts, glass sounds and more. Always immersive all sounds are ambisonic recordings.

About Ambisonics:

This is an Ambisonics sound effects library - and by using the free SoundField SurroundZone 2 plugin you can convert the B-format files into your preferred format (stereo, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, 7.0 or 7.1 surround). Note: The library also contains ready-made stereo mixdowns for your convenience.

If you are a musician who wants to define the building blocks of an intense horror track or maybe you are a sound designer who needs to create a musical moment in a scene from a sound design perspective, this library can help you to achieve those things.

Metals, vinyl noises, voices, ukuleles, flutes, guitars and clocks were used to create this intense pack of 164 loops and 44 Fx.

Check the main demo!! It was created very quickly using only the sounds of the pack with NO ADDED EFFECTS, only mixing the levels of the sounds and shows you the intensity of what you can create with this library!!

Vintage Film Tech Effects features Slate claps, Beeps, Bloops, Film leader tone, Static, 2 Pops, digital dropouts, record player noise and much more. We’ve collected these vintage sounds from old Hollywood dailies reels, and film stock. 206 tracks that recreate the sound of the lost art of classic Film, TV and radio production.

Looking for authentic ambient sounds of Japanese transportation? Look no further! Field recordist and composer Ryan Ayers travelled to Japan in April of 2019 and captured this wonderful collection. His journey took him from Osaka to Tokyo to Fukuoka and all points in-between. Travel aboard the trains of the JR, the famous Shinkansen, the Hanyu Ferry and more! Explore the train platforms and station terminals of Osaka. Get lost in the Kansai International Airport. There is a subway noodle shop as well as specialty food markets. Authentic walla and natural activity give this collection the ear candy necessary to be an integral part of great soundscapes.

This is a purely recorded sound pack. Nothing is synthetic or layered here. What you hear is exactly what was captured on location. We edited and mastered the files to bring out the best parts of the recordings. Most of the recordings have been ready-made into loops for ease of use. As always, we have embedded the files with detailed metadata for easy database searches.

Whether you’re working on an exciting Pirates of the Caribbean style video game or a relaxing sea-faring romance, the hours of exceptional background loops and additional cutting edge ship sounds contained within this sound pack will set your project on a course to excellence!

EXPLORE AN ENTIRE SHIP

Whether your adventure takes place in the MAIN DECK, CABIN, BELOW DECK, atop the CROWS NEST, in a MEDIEVAL PORT, or on a DISTANT SHIP in the HIGH SEAS we’ve got you covered! Each ambience contains MULTIPLE VARIATIONS, ALL WEATHER CONDITIONS, and MULTIPLE INTENSITIES to cover each and every part of the ship, on the rough and calm seas, this sound effects library is perfect for every situation you need.

A JOURNEY TO REMEMBER

Our expert team of sound designers have meticulously crafted each ambience into CONTINUOUS, NON-REPETITIVE, DRAG AND DROP-READY LOOPS that will serve as perfect background audio for your game, film, animation, live event, or even as relaxing background audio! We have even included FULL and SIMPLIFIED MIXES, ISOLATED WEATHER, OCEAN and WOOD CRACKING versions, SHORT and LONG non-repetitive variants, and numerous other options for your convenience!

TREASURE APLENTY

With FREE UPDATES, FOREVER! and FREE BONUS AMBIENCES: MEDIEVAL PORT and isolated, SEA, SAILS and FLAG FLAPPING, Ship’s BELL RINGING, WEATHER and WOOD CRACKING SOUNDS, all supplied in industry standard Hi-Rez WAV and Hi-Quality MP3 formats, there’s no better time to set sail on the high seas with this ONE OF A KIND sound pack!

So what are you waiting for? Take command of this UNIQUE library and begin your journey on the high seas today!

KEY FEATURES:

Huge variety of Old Wooden Ship Interior and Exterior Ambiences, All Weather Conditions and Additional Useful BONUS Sound Effects for every scene or situation.